


Rose of May

by Clover



Category: DCU, Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-27
Updated: 2012-09-27
Packaged: 2017-11-15 04:15:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/523039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clover/pseuds/Clover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He's watching her and can't help but think of what he's done and how much he hopes, for all the ways she fits the song, she doesn't fit the ending the same way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rose of May

**Author's Note:**

> Have you ever heard a song and then an idea pops up and just won't LEAVE until you submit to its wishes and write it down? Yeah, that's where this came from. I do not mean to write song-fics, but that somehow seems to be the case. Ugh... 
> 
> Slightly one-sided Dick/Artemis or can just be taken as friendship.

He never wanted to do this to her, but there was no other choice. She was their only option. The only one he trusted enough and who had the right kind of experience and skill set to make it work. And she was adaptable enough to make up for what she lacked. He knew Kaldur would have done what he could to protect her, but it wasn’t his job to watch over her this time. As much as he might not have wanted to, Kaldur had to treat her life as a secondary to his own if they wanted to pull off their deception. Still, as Dick watched the video of the Team’s latest encounter with Kaldur and his newest second and at where Artemis was standing in the moonlight, posed before moved to strike, he couldn’t stop the thoughts that she looked more like a goddess than a tigress, more like her namesake than the title she’d taken for the mission. Watching her move, knives flashing like quicksilver, he couldn’t help recalling a song he’d heard in what seemed like a lifetime ago.

__

War leaves its trail  
In moonlight so pale  
Its shadows they flow  
In rivers, In rivers  
So put on my mask  
I’ll go where they ask  
So I might once again see the Rose of May

Licking his lips, Dick began to sing the softly, not sure who he was singing for. It was just…something about the song and about the situation they were all caught up in that prompted him into the action. His voice was soft and gentle, his thoughts caught up in the blonde on the screen before him.

Although she’d never compare herself to anything as sentimental as a rose, Artemis was a warrior with a heart she did her best to ignore, with tears she refused to shed, and that did what needed to be done. Did the things and gone into the mission that he had asked her to do. She don a new costume with a new mask for her role and while the coloration fit for how she appeared to everyone else, Dick thought it clashed with what she really looked like.

He remembered all the times they’d sparred together and all the times they fooled around on the various gymnastic equipment pieces at the Cave. She didn’t fly in quite the same way he did, but he wouldn’t deny that she had wings of her own. Heights and great leaps of faith didn’t bother her and she was as comfortable on the ground as she was in the air. With her new name and costumes, however, Artemis had to switch up her normal habits and had, essentially, turned her wings to stone. Much like how she stuck with using knives as her primary weapon instead of a bow and arrow.

__

Cage of the kings  
No need for wings  
So turn them to stone  
From roses to bone  
When you look at me  
What do you see?  
This costume I weave  
Disfiguring me…

Dick didn’t try lying to himself. He knew that there were things that Kaldur and Artemis kept from him regarding the things they had to do to keep up their cover. He’d never be able to undo or make up for this, but he also knew better than to say anything regarding the matter. They’d consider it an insult and remind him that they had both willingly gone into the belly of the beast, full well knowing that there would be times where their morals would be tested. Not that the fact would lessen his guilt any, but he could and would respect the choices they made out of necessity.

He wondered if Artemis was grateful that she wouldn’t have to fight against Wally at least. Or that, even if Wally got back into the hero business, that he knew the truth and that she wouldn’t have to hurt him in ways that were more than just physical. Because, as much as she said her reasoning for getting into the hero business in the first place was a matter of defiance, Dick thought she was beautiful and threw herself the most into it when she was protecting someone. She wasn’t someone who liked to hurt people she cared about or the innocent. She could do it, but she didn’t necessarily like it. 

Artemis may have able to do the cruel things that were asked of her because of how she viewed herself. She thought herself broken and as harsh as her voice could be at times, needing to be as controlled and severe as the ponytail she always wore, with jagged edges and strong walls, but Dick had always seen her as someone like himself. They were lost, hurt, and lonely, but that there was some small bit of innocence that they wanted to protect, even if they couldn’t see it in themselves. Maybe that was why she always did wear the ponytail. When her hair was down, Artemis had a much softer look about her. To use the words of the song, she looked less like the warrior’s blade and more like maiden rose. 

And she would have smacked him so hard for that last thought.

But as Dick came to the end of the video and the last repetition of the song, he could only hope that he hadn’t sent her off to her death and that she would come back to them. So that he could hear her laughter again, see her smirks and smiles, and that he could share with her his corny thoughts that she’d smack him for. 

__

Led here by fate  
No longer afraid  
So here now I lay  
My roses of may

**Author's Note:**

> The song that Dick's singing is [this one](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNHtbw4Kyf0) done by katethegreat19 on youtube. The melody is Beatrix's theme from FFIX.


End file.
